Al-Qaeda denies responsibility for Pakistan blasts

For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-12-14

Al-Qaeda's English-speaking spokesman, American Adam Gadahn, issued a message denying the group's responsibility for a series of bomb blasts throughout Pakistan, instead blaming US, Indian and Pakistani intelligence services, international wire agencies reported on Saturday (December 12th). Gadahn called the bombings that have killed more than 500 people since October "un-Islamic".

The tape made no mention of recent reports that a US drone attack killed a senior al-Qaeda leader in northwest Pakistan. A report by US television network CBS News identified the leader as Saleh al-Somali, a Somali-born al Qaeda operational planner.

"The Al-Qaeda organisation does not usually disclose the names of leaders killed unless in exceptional cases such as when it announced the killing of Abu Laith al-Libi in Waziristan, in a suspected US air raid in January 2008," London-based terrorism analyst Camille Tawil told Al-Shorfa on Monday.

The CBS report said al-Somali's responsibilities included "plotting al Qaeda's attacks and plans beyond the Afghanistan-Pakistan region".

Meanwhile, the deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, posted a message on a militant Islamist website saying President Barack Obama has done nothing for the Arab world since becoming president and "aims only to support Israel". He also accused a number of Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, of being "Arab Zionists".

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